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When Homeschool Parents Have to Work

© Joan Archer

Unfortunately for some of us, we are in a position where we cannot stay home at all times and homeschool our kids. I say unfortunately, because I have recently had to get a job outside of my home, and it kills me to leave my kids every afternoon. However, my husband and I are working on a special project (a career change) and it will take a while before his pay is back up to the level it was before. Because we lead a pretty "bare bones" existence as it is, you can see why any loss of income is pretty drastic. Also, we went through an October and November you would not believe-our furnace did not want to come on, our water heater totally died, our car went to its final resting place, and the washing machine did its last load for eternity. When you lead the simplest lifestyle you can manage, all of these things are "extras" on the paycheck.

Of course, as a back-up system, we do have a wood stove that we made excellent use of, and hoped real hard that the temperature wouldn't dip below freezing too many times so our pipes wouldn't burst during the night without our heating system on. As we are in Omaha, you can bet the prayers for good weather were many! We have a semi-decent bus system, which is good enough for now. My brother has a washer, so as long as we supply the soap and dryer sheets for all of us, he doesn't care if we use his washer. Fair enough. We got a new water heater by stretching the budget a bit (easier without car insurace payments!) which my husband, who is unaccustomed to doing such extensive work, installed with help from my brother. The furnace finally decided to come back on, which was a thrilling day! We weren't too worried about that, because a) it does this every year, and b) we were blessed by a mild winter and a yard full of firewood!

I must make mention of my brother being kind enough to pick me up every night after work, for a mere pittance. Believe it or not, my husband gets a ride to work every day from my ex husband! He was taking our eldest to school anyway, and offered to take Rod to work, beings both places are in the same area. My husband was stunned, but it was cold that day, so he carefully weighed the choices, oh, who am I kidding? He was in that car and gone before the last word left my ex's mouth! Now he even picks Rod up on Michael's days off, coming three miles out of his way to do so. Also, for pittance. Thanks go to both of them! Not to change the subject, or anything, but...

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